What happens to bullets shot into the air? Can they seriously hurt someone when they come back down?

Question

You always see demonstrations in the Middle East with people firing AK's into the air... what happens to the bullets?

Answer 1

Bullets shot into the air will come back down, obviously. There isn't a gun with a muzzle velocity high enough to launch bullets into orbit.

Now, if fired STRAIGHT up into the air, unless the bullet strikes an extremely vulnerable area (such as the eye, etc) then it WILL NOT KILL. the terminal velocity of a tumbling bullet as it falls is just over 100 mph. Sure, it'll give you one hell of a headache, but you're simply not going to die.

HOWEVER, if the bullet is fired at an ANGLE, it's horizontal velocity is hardly affected by the arced travel, and so it strikes whatever it hits with a HIGH velocity and IS capable of killing. Most "stray bullet" deaths you hear about in the news ACTUALLY occur because of weapons fired into the air at an angle. The more shallow the angle, the higher the velocity the stray bullet will strike with, and the more likely it will be to kill someone.

Answer 2

Bullets In The Air

Answer 3

THey did this on myth busters.....although i sometimes question their scientific method...this one seemed legit...basically they found if you shoot it STRAIGHT UP....when the bullet comes back down...it tumbles.
With the air resistance and what not......not enough force to really hurt you....possibly get a bruise or something, but they found it wasn't enough force to penetrate skin.

Its like the throwing a penny off the empire state building can kill someone........the mass is soo small and there is air resistance...doesn't build up enough velocity....the force doesn't amount to anything deadly.

Now if the bullet is shot at an angle....not 90 degrees up in the air...or something close to that. It follows a parabolic trajectory......think of shooting an arrow. There is still air resistance that slows it down, but for the most part the bullet is cutting through the air. It doesn't tumble either. That can kill someone.

If you notice in those demonstrations, they normally shoot straight up.

Answer 4

Bullets do NOT evaporate in mid air! they come back down with almost as much energy as they were fired with when fired at an angle. But when fired straight up, they return at their 'terminal velocity', determined by the air resistance of the bullet. It's usually enough to pierce flesh, though, so it's likely that when those shots are fired in cities, somebody is likely to get hurt.

Answer 5

Yes and with regards what you don't see are or hear about two often are the people who get killed when the bullets comedown to earth.

Strangely enough its not a bullet going straight up and down that can kill but bullets fired upwards at an angle that do the most damage.

Answer 6

I saw what David 47 was talking about, the mythbusters did an experiment with shooting bullets straight up and they did not come down with enough force to kill. However, they pointed out, and David forgot to mention this, that there have been documented accounts of people being killed by this. I was in New Orleans back on New Years of 1994 I think and a man was struck in the shoulder by a bullet. It passed down through his body and killed him. Forensics proved that it came from his own deer rifle which he had been shooting into the air.

Answer 7

Half Moon Bay CA is on the coast 25 miles south of SF. On the 4th of July 2002 a child, little girl I think, was struck in the head by a stray round. Not sure if death was instant or not, but dead is dead just as sure as "Stupid is as Stupid does"

In the case of the middle east "stupid" is compounded 10 fold by lack of education. With literacy rates at 73% in Saudi Arabia and Iran, 39 % in Iraq and below 25% in many of the African countries always in the news...these things will continue.

Answer 8

I have seen it happen first hand while in Iraq in 2003. It goes up...then comes back down, not as fast as it went up. It still has a max velocity powered only by gravity so the rate at which it falls is much slower. Kind of like dropping a penny from a skyscraper, it is going to stop gaining speed at a certain speed, but can still hurt somebody.

Answer 9

My question is :
When the bullet is fired staight up it will escape the gun with a very velocity. So while comig back, when it reaches the ground it will attain the same velocity... right?
(While moving up it starts from its high velocity and velocity get reduced at the rate 9.8m/s and it becomes zero at apogee. From there the bullet comes down and velocity increses at therate of 9.8m/s . )Since it is falling through the same atmosphere air resistance offered for going up and down will be the same.. right...?

Answer 10

When they come back down, they can kill someone instantly. Watch the movie "The Mexican" - very good example of what can happen shows up there.

It happens every 4th of July here in South Florida. When I reported some gunfire to the cops, they said to just stay indoors and hope stray bullets dont hit the windows or the cars. It happens all the time each year and people are always hurt or killed.